A Secret Exposed
by ekat1234
Summary: Ziva has a secret she has been keeping from her team. Will the whole team find out and trust her? What will happen to Ziva and the secret she had been keeping?


Ziva was sitting at her desk trying to finish the paperwork so she could get home earlier than usual tonight after the all nighter the team had to pull last night. Tony was at his desk trying to finish his paperwork which he had been neglecting for the past week and the stack was now almost as tall as his computer. McGee had already finished his work and had gone home early to work on his second book that was still being based on them much to the team's disappointment. Gibbs had disappeared earlier and Abby, Ducky, and Palmer had gone home to get ready for their dates.

Ziva felt eyes on her and looked up to see Tony staring at her and he looked quickly down when he saw he was caught. Ziva turned back to finish the file she was working on and a few minutes later got up to leave.

"Where are you going," Tony asked her as she gathered her stuff.

"I'm going home for the night. See you tomorrow," she called over her shoulder in a hurry. The elevator doors were just closing when a hand shot between them. The doors opened back up to reveal DiNozzo holding his things leaving also.

"I'll ride down with you," he stated as he stepped into the elevator. They rode in silence while watching the numbers going down.

"Do you want to get a drink tonight?"

"No thank you. I'm as tired as a horse," Ziva replied not wanting to tell him why she wanted to get home so quickly.

"It's not horse. Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure." The doors opened, revealing the lobby, and Ziva stepped off trying to leave before DiNozzo asked her more questions.

"You're in a hurry," he spoke, running to catch up with her.

"I have a friend in town I want to see."

"What friend?"

"A friend you will not meet," Ziva, clearly remembering the last time DiNozzo saw one of her friends, finished the conversation while getting into her car.

"Ok, have a nice night," he said right before she shut the car door on him and pulled out of the NCIS parking lot.

* * *

><p>That was strange Tony thought. Ziva normally doesn't run like that unless she doesn't want to answer questions and get caught. He started walking to his car but kept trying to remember if she had mentioned this "friend" earlier. The only thing that stood out was that she hadn't wanted to stay last night when they had been working a case which was a first for Ziva. Tony decided he was going to check it out and go by her apartment.<p>

* * *

><p>Ziva drove fast, weaving in and out of cars like she faster than she normally did, while going home. One reason was to get home quicker, but the main reason was to lose any tails. She knew there was someone following her. There always was. She had thought it was Mossad the first few times, but she knew how Mossad trained and this wasn't that. After she felt confident she had lost them tonight, she started to drive to her apartment.<p>

"Hello," she called out when she got home.

"Hey," a twelve year old girl answered her walking out of the guest bedroom that had recently become hers. Nobody except Vance knew that this girl existed and he only knew because he was a friend of her father's. This girl was her daughter. She was born in Israel ten months after her father had forced her to move into Michael Rifkin's apartment. She had hated it. He had abused her almost as much as her father had and maybe even more. She was glad she had left and had come to America.

"How was school?

"Same as usual, but Kelly and Jasmine want to go horseback riding next week and I think it would be fun." Ziva looked at Atonia with the same worried face she looked at her with whenever she said she was going somewhere.

"I don't know about that."

"Come on mom. I can't spend my life hiding and being afraid to go out. If they were going to find me then they will but they haven't yet."Atonia argued this even though she was a little bit nervous also. She knew that she couldn't hide from her grandfather but so far he hadn't found her and Atonia wanted to do more activities without worrying. Besides, she thought, her mom had taught her how to defend herself.

"Ok, fine you can go, but," she said just at Atonia started to rejoice, you have to call me every hour starting right after school gets out and if you see a tail, send a text message every twenty minutes. If you are one minute late I _will_ come get you."

"Thank you so much mom. You will not regret this." Atonia ran out of the room to go call her friends.

* * *

><p>Tony thought he noticed someone following him on his way to Ziva's but he figured it was just paranoia when the car passed him and turned down a different road. He couldn't stop thinking about what she could be hiding from him. He trusted her and he had thought that Ziva trusted him too. He parked in front of her apartment building and was about to get out of the car when he started to feel paranoid again. He turned around to look and there was the same car that he had thought had been following him before.<p>

"There's no such thing as coincidences" he thought quoting rule number thirty- nine. He reminded himself to be on his guard and then got out of the car. Tony walked out of the elevator and as he approached the door, he became a bit nervous. Ziva had told him she was busy. What if she got mad? He pushed that thought from his mind and knocked on the door.

* * *

><p>Ziva was heating up leftovers from last night's cooking when she heard a knock at the door.<p>

"Atonia, answer it," she called through the house.

She heard Atonia walk through the living room to the door and pause. "Good, she is remembering to look through the eye hole," Ziva thought, proud of her daughter. Then the door opened and Ziva wondered who it could be if her daughter recognized the person. Then she heard it.

"Is Ziva here?" Ziva froze and then walked into the living room where Tony could see her before Atonia could reply.

"_Atonia, why don't you finish fixing dinner while I talk to Tony." _Ziva stated in Hebrew so her daughter would know that he did not know she was Ziva's daughter, as was their code. Atonia did as her mother said and went in to the kitchen. Ziva let Tony in and they sat on the couch for a minute before Tony broke the silence.

"Who is that?"

"A friend, though it is none of your business."

"She looks just like you and someone else… but that's impossible, right?" Tony didn't think it was impossible because right after he said it Ziva's face changed and he realized it was entirely possible.

"Is it true," Tony finally asked after another uncomfortable silence.

"Yes, Atonia is my daughter," Ziva said looking down. She looked up from underneath her hair when Tony didn't say anything and felt uncomfortable under his stare.

* * *

><p>Tony couldn't believe it. Ziva had a daughter and, not only did she have a daughter, but she had hidden her from him. "Does Gibbs know," Tony thought. From the way Ziva looked right now, he doubted it. Tony had never seen her nervous before. It was like she was waiting for him to hurt her, but he wouldn't and he thought she had known that after all they had been through. He couldn't figure out what to say to something like this as Ziva looked at him in fear from behind her curly, brown hair.<p>

* * *

><p>Atonia heard everything from a safe distance in the kitchen. She knew her mom knew she could hear everything but Ziva knew her daughter and Atonia would have done anything to hear what was being said. Atonia had known who Tony was when she looked through the eye hole on the door, but she didn't care. She was tired of trying to not make herself noticeable and not meeting her mother's friends who she talked about so much. Not realizing how much this would affect her mother, she had opened the door. Atonia was seriously regretting doing it now. What were her pathetic wants compared to the logical reasons her mother didn't want her to be known. Her worst nightmare of both Ziva and Atonia became true when suddenly there was a bang and the door flew open. Atonia didn't have to look to see who it was because she recognized the voice of the trained Mossad kidnappers when they yelled, "Freeze!" Atonia, not in their line of sight yet, froze with fear and regret as she realized what was going to happen.<p>

"This was not going to be a good night," Atonia thought as she threw herself into the room to try and help her mom and Tony fight off the kidnappers and killers.


End file.
